It's gone.

The mole is gone.
It's slow recovery because I get old. But I don't have to be worried about a risky mole on the palm anymore.

It's end of March but still cold outside(7C.) I think I need to operate the stove few more weeks.

-Our Chief Cabinet-

I live in Tochigi Pref. I've found out the Chief Cabinet Edano is from Tochigi Pref. I've heard that he was the captain of the student council when he was in junior high school and very good at talking. I guess his speech is clearer than the Prime Minister's.

A favorite singer

This is one of the most favorite CD's of the year for me.

I finally could get her CD today. I run across her song "Slow" through the radio then liked it immediately.


I heard the terrible and sad news about workers at the neuclear power plant.

There are about 400 people working at the plant. They are given one blanket each then lay on the floor when they rest(sleep.) They eat only two small meals a day. Yes,they are brave.They are respected.Because they are saving us.

It's unbelievable and terrible to hear that those hero's are treated like this auster condition.

I just keep praying. Tomorrow will be better..

The Soccer Night.

The scheduled blackout is cancelled tonight!

Then we could watch the charity soccer game between the Japanese National representative team and Japan-league on TV. The uniform,shoes,ball, everything the player use in this game will be on the charity auction then the money will go to the donation for the earthquake & tunami victims.

We love baseball but we love soccer,too because the representative team became the best 16 in the last world cup last year eventhough many many people didn't expected that result.

They were a weak team just few weeks before the world cup. But they won against Cameroon and Denmark. We are encouraged to watch them.Specially,for now.

He's Keisuke Honda who is playing in CSKA Moscow Russia.

The Love of Mothers.

I've read an article on the paper this morning.

One mother thank to the woman for breast feeding for her baby.

28 year old mother is staying at evacuation center with her 2 months-old-baby.

Mother couldn't sleep because baby didn't stop crying because of hunger.

That's a vicious spiral.

Mother's breast milk stopped because of lack of sleep.

There's no alternative nutrition such as powder milk at the center.

32 year old woman who have 18 months-old baby and also breast-feed her baby had heard about that situation through the radio then visited that evecuation center.

32 year-old woman wasn't sure the baby drink her breast milk first but the baby started sucking immediately and it lasted 20 min.

I couldn't find out how often the 32 year-old woman visited the evecuation center but 28-year-old mother start breast-feeding again.

on the quiet Sunday

These're something I've done today.

Snowball Cookies.

Swiss Roll.

Scones. -sold out-thank you very much!

The hyacinthine is borgeoning.

The news of the neuclear power plant are only make me depressed. Workers at the plant are great worry to me.The government's press conference become to hedge when it comes to the neuclear power plant.

The last customer of today was a man went to the disaster area to see his friends. He was speechless.He looked overwhelmed.

Then I understood that the hardship of victims never be understood unless we see it.

He sipped coffee and sighed deeply,sipped,sighed..kept doing it until he decided to go home.

favorite muffins.

-Caramelized Banana & walnuts Muffins-
150 g flour
4 g Baking powder
50 g brown sugar
60 g unsalted butter (soften in the room temperature)
1 egg (lightly beaten)
45 cc milk
40 g walnuts(roasted by 160C,8min then chopped)
1 banana(thin sliced)
30 g granuated sugar
15 cc water
put sugar and water in the shallow pan on midium heat. Don't stir,just watch it until the color of sugar turn to brown.
Add the sliced banana into the pan and mix.

Creamed the butter then add brown sugar ,mix well. Add the egg little by little.

Add half of milk then half of flour&baking powder mixture,add rest of milk ,rest of flour.

Fold carameled banana and walnuts. Spoon the batter into the muffin cup (I made 5 cups)

Bake 170C oven for 25min.

Where's the donations go? Many people are wondering about this. 244,700 victims of 600 km disaster area are at about 2,000 places of the evacuation center now. It is too widespread. Plus,the streets to the area got damaged.

The Pacific side of North East area is ria coast. The movement by the land route is inconvenient because the land is undulating, and the mountainous district of a steep slope can approach the shore, and there is little level ground.

-By the way,when a tsunami hit ria coast, wave height usually rises, and the damage grows big. In addition, with a reflection wave and repeats opposite bank, and the tsunami which flocked attacks it once in the gulf, and the duration of the tsunami is long. They knew it then built high seawall but the Tunami waves are 10 meters high,broke the seawalls easily then engulf large area.-

Even the streets between city to city is few, those are covered by debris. But the condition is progressing everyday.Most debris on the main street is taken away.The bunch of relief spplies are reaching.

Tomorrow will be better..

Kizuna -絆-

Kizuna,(kiz-nah)

means "bond."

Through this havoc,we found our asset "Kizuna."

People always think about other people.

Too many people went to the bank for donation like making the bank's system shut down.

We are patients for the survivors.
Unfortunately,there are some looting in the disaster's area but who can blame them?
I think someone have no choice to steal gas for running away from the devastating area which scarce fuel, foods, power, heating system, medicines, doctors, blankets, clothes, water, milk for babies,etc. They are survivors who didn't take their belongings with them anything.
People who fetch their stuff didn't make it.
That was the hover between life and death.

We start talking with strangers and sharing our feeling,experiences.
We found it nice to listen to elderly people and learn many things from them which we should have done it before.

Kizuna, if it is not bother you,please whisper to yourself sometimes.

High School Baseball

The annual High School Baseball Tournament has started yesterday.
It is held twice a year.32 teams(schools) qualify for the tournament.
These nationwide events is televised nationally.And its popularity is widespread the whole country.You often see player's tears after being eliminated by a loss.

Many people love this tornament.

There were some opinion that the tournament should be called off in this situation but High School Baseball Federation have decided to hold the tornament because they thought that the country must be encouraged by this popular event.Outward of the stadium. It's covered by an ivy.

After they lose,they scoope up the soil of the field as a momento.They think it as a precious soil.

At the opening celemony,one represent player pledge to play fair.

This is his moving pledge.

"I was born in the year of "Great Hanshin earthquake(M7.3)" 16 years ago.

Now,we all are in deep sorrow.But people are united and do their best in disaster area.

We believe that people can overcome huge challenge by assisting each other.All we have to do is doing our best.

Ganbarou,Nippon! (Keep going,or Do our best)

We are grateful for the life.

The sky of the day. When I stop to the signal,I found the road sign was just above me.



It's Wednesday.So the cafe is closed. Then I took a train as usual. You can see the motorman from the small window left side of the picture.



It was the first time to go outside since the disaster. I could be far away from the neuclear plant for awhile.



We finally found the gas station to open then made a success of filling gas.

This beautiful picture I found is Matsushima. (before disaster)

Matsushima is regarded as one of the three most scenic locations in Japan.Matsushima,which means "Pine Island" is distinguished by its many small pine-covered islands. The harmony between islands and sea creates breathtaking beauty which is outstanding in any season or weather.

That is explanation about Matsushima.

I regret not telling you about those beautiful scenic places before those place were swept away..
I started the blog because I wanted you to know about my country but I have neglected to tell...

I'd like to share one story today.

In Ozuchi-town,Iwate, over 1,000 people death or missing area, 28 local fire fighters stayed on the coast to help people to evacuate.One of them kept ringing a fire bell.

When the earthquake happened,the fire fighters rushed to shut the gate of the breakwater.57 year-old man told one of his colleague to sound a siren.The colleague push the button of the siren.

It didn't work.

Because of M9.0,the area lost power.

For smooth evacuation,Tunami alert was still necessary.

The man let colleague go help the people then he climed up on the roof of the building then rang the fire bell by hand which is used for only at the time of a great disaster.

The bell was ringing until the Tunami engulfed the fire department building.

He must watch the Tunami came from the sea..,one of his colleague said.
4 of them confirmed dead,7 still missing.

the important heating system

The aftershock woke me up this morning.

The scheduled blackout had started at 9:20am and ended around 1pm.
A cold morning. I'm glad I have this stove in no power condition.

I'm still scared to remember this 200kg weigh stove was swinging during the quake.

I have no customer so far today but I can see many cars on the street.
I bet fuel supply is getting better then people start moving. That's a good news.

-My song of the day-

"Power To The People"

It's a national holiday -the vernal equinox day-today. It supposed to be a nice holiday weekend and expected many customers to the cafe.But it's very quiet outside.Because of shortage of gas,because of the fear for the radiation,people aren't feel like going out.I know..

I baked Cheesecake yesterday and divided it today.It's a NY style.The difference between "NY style" and "just baked type" is pouring hot water in the shallow pan when it's baking.It gives the cake moisture.You're gonna love its melt-in-your-mouth smooth.

I remember that day. I made cheesecake on Mar.11th,too.

I remember that I carefully combined ingredients because I sometimes made some careless mistakes.

It looked wonderful when baking time was over. I was looking forward to devide that cake then put on the shelf to let cool. That was in the morning.



The next time I noticed that cake was a couple of hours of the quake.It was on the floor, upside-down and messy.
Today's cake is as wonderful as that one,I believe.



The Health Ministry said tainted by radioactive iodine vegetables were found in some area,include my town, yesterday.

OK.

We were thinking about that.It was not surprising.Don't be panicked.



We face new chalenges everyday.
The scheduled blackout will start 9am tomorrow in my area.

Please send us your power!

fighters.

This is my song of the day.

"Fighter"

Christina's powerful voice encourages me a lot.


There was a press conference of the chief of the Tokyo Fire Department at midnight.
The elite fire fighters were working at the neuclear plant to spray the water to the plant all night.Even there was a fear for exposed to the radiation,they mustered up all their courage to accomplish their duties.

The chief said he was extremely proud of them. Yes,we all do.

We have a wonderful news today. 80-year-old lady and 16-year-old grandson found alive and rescued from collapsed home after 217 hours of the quake!

The police man found grandson on the roof aroud 4pm today. He told the rescue team that his grandmother was still in the house.

They got trapped in the debris by the quake then couldn't get out but they had small space to stay. They shared blanket,cuddled each other to protect from cold air.They ate yogurt little by little everyday from the refrige. They are in the hospital and stable condition now.
After the family was united,grandson's father said,proud of his son.

one week after.

The sky around 6pm.

The food is still scarce.

I couldn't get enough eggs for making Swiss Roll today.

Instead of that,I've made Peanut Cream & Choco Chip Scones.

150 g Flour

4 g Baking Powder

40 g Brown Sugar ,Pinch of Salt

50 g Unsweet Peanutbutter

1 egg

80 g Fresh Cream

50 g Chocolate Chip

1.Mix flour,sugar,salt and baking powder.

2.Add peanut butter and mix lightly.

3.Add egg and fresh cream then add choco chip.

-recommend to use the food processor-

Wrap the dough and put it in the refrige at least 1 hour.

Devide the dough in 8 part. Bake it 180C,18min.

I recommend to put whipped cream on side.

Once I published this post few minutes ago,I almost deleted this post because I thought this is indiscreet topic on this situation in Japan.
The country is in deep sorrow. There are many problems around country. Another big M6.1 after shock have just occured a couple of hours ago. Another Neuclear Plant is Southern part of this desaster's area.

I mentioned the numbers of victims yesterday but that was not correct. Death tall is risen in every minutes. We are not sure how many people are missing,or waiting fo help exactly.

Meanwhile,Southern Japan is still in trouble. They lost almost all cow because of foot-and-mouth disease,Mt. Shinmoe has erupted 2months ago. Even these circumstances, Southern people are eager to help quake victims.

We ask ourselves everyday. This is suitable or not? Shouldn't we go dinner because many people are struggling in North? Do we have to stop doing something fun,even laugh? Some people agree,some people disagree.

I don't know.I have no answer.

But I think I have to open the cafe to wait for the guest if this action would help someone. Actually,my area is just next prefecture to the neuclear plant is located. I saw many people who evacuated from there since the quake happened last week. We had party of six from there today. They decided to out of the city.They said thay were glad to have some time to rest in my cafe.

So I'm going to up this post right now.


We live.We fight.
I believe. I pray.

believe tomorrow

-The rescued baby's picture-

6:25am,the first blackout of the day in my area has already started when I woke up.

It was cold morning but surviviors are in terrible situation at shelter,their homes.

They don't have heating system.
They share few blankets in below freezing.
6,548 people comfirmed dead. 13,000 are still waiting for rescue.
10,354 are reported missing.

We have re-opened the cafe since Sunday. We have to do what we can do.

under the moon

The scheduled blackout of the day have just finished in my area.

My husband and I were staying by the stove,talking,listening to the radio. There was no heating system but stove,no lights,no TV.

Hot drink give us comfort,he says. Yes,indeed. I say.

Watching fire of the stove make us warm,isn't it? Yes it is.

Felicity.Even trivial things .
What a quiet night. The moon light is bright enough.

It's a cold night. Many people are surviving now in Northern part. Please,keep fighting!

No more aftershocks,please.

I'm ok.

That was the longest and biggest quake I've experienced. I was very scared.

It's 7:30pm. It's been 4hours since the first hit but I still feel quite big aftershocks several times.

My Favorite Thing.

I sometimes go for a jog in the morning before opening cafe. It's my favorite place to walk which reminds me national park in MI. The pavement is made by wood chip so you don't have to worry about knee pain. The trees are Japanese pine tree.